Conservative executives at Fox need to understand real facets of humor before they can produce another conservative spinoff of “The Daily Show.” This paper will show the subtle differences between Fox’s The ½ Hour News Hour and NBC’s The Daily Show that may help to explain rating points between the different programming.
The ½ Hour News Hour makes frequent stabs at humor and fails to really hit the target. One of the main attributes of the program is it’s blatant political message. For example, two episodes feature skits about Gun laws. The first episode begins with an interview of a complete gun-ban supporter. Throughout the interview, we find out that the interviewee is actually an avid criminal who was “randomly” shot by an old lady being mugged (mugged by the interviewee), a homeowner being robbed (robbed by the interviewee), and a police officer. In the end, we “get the message” all too easily that gun violence is caused by definite criminals and not by innocent gun owners.
The second episode shows an infomercial skit about a new system of dealing with gun violence without purchasing a gun. Consumers are shown purchasing and putting up signs which read “gun-free zone.” We then see subsequent skits in which a man with a shot gun attempts to rob a convenience store only to realize that the store is a “gun-free zone.” Dejectedly, he withdraws his robbery attempt. Both of these attempts at humor are so blatant with political messaging that the moderate voter will most likely change the channel after being told what to think.
Jon Stewart, from The Daily Show, carries a liberal political agenda, but his messaging is much more subtle and sophisticated. In one episode he makes Fox News look like the “New Liberals” based on criteria from quotes made by conservative talk show hosts and guests. He shows how conservatives support the passionate town hall protestors discussing the health care reform. He then juxtaposes those statements with earlier statements by Fox’s News anchors: “…Many protestors are simply loons.” Throughout the entire skit, he continues to show cut scenes from fox news programming and juxtaposing those statements with earlier ideas thus showing a complexity in his humor that Fox was not able to achieve.
The style of The ½ Hour News Hour signifies an evening on Saturday Night Live with its over-exaggerated skits rather than a more sophisticated parody on news programming. Furthermore, rather than helping the audience to form a relationship with the mock anchor, we are frequented with skit interviews. NBC’s The Colbert Report helps us really get to know, and like the anchor, Stephen Colbert, with his brilliant improvisation.
Furthermore, The Daily Show doesn’t always force liberal opinions in every episode. Rather, the show frequently attacks multiple ideas. Weinman said, “It’s hard to be an effective comedian while being an advocate for a party, any party.” Underneath the humor, The Daily Show, ultimately, seeks to be funny while adding bits of liberalism. Conversely, the ½ Hour News Hour makes its first priority in pushing a conservative agenda while trying (but failing) to be funny.
Fox was trying to copy NBC’s news parody success by only looking at the service of the shows. Unfortunately, they failed to see the successful and subtle methodologies and connotations embodied in the humor and thus failed to give conservative news to a young, entertainment-seeking audience.
Indeed, Reality TV has changed the face of television, literally. How have these low-budget programs garnered so many viewers? To effectively discuss this question we need to understand the cultural/historical background of our RTV-watching Americans.
Andrew Carnegie's life embodied the American Dream. He amassed millions in the steel industry and spent the rest of his life in philanthropy.
American Dream and Capitalism
Young American children are raised in a capitalist-conscious economy. They are told that if they work hard (and smart), they can accumulate the kind of wealth of billionaires like Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, and Sergey Brin. The American public education system teaches youngsters through its use of grades that education—and life is a competition, in which only the best win.
Naturally, the capitalistic method is the principal theme of a RTV show. Francine Prose states that RTV summarizes the “vision of a zero-sum society in which no one can win unless someone else loses….”
RTV, a product of a capitalist-driven economy, appeals to all who fight in the trenches of capitalism, be it the office or the classroom.
Gladiator Syndrome
Adam and CT duke it out in "The Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Duel 2." Contestants are chosen based on clashing personalities.
Inherent in human behavior, as noted historically, is the obsession with watching competitions. From the coliseum’s gladiators to NFL’s Super Bowl, humans have typically enjoyed a good battle. We often pick a side and triumph or despair depending on how our team does. And just as well, RTV picks up this same trend. Often I hear conversations among friends and coworkers about certain affinities towards particular contestants in the latest RTVs. Because everyone has his or her favorite contestant (I did when David Archuleta competed in American Idol), everyone must watch the latest episode to find out if his or her contestant will make it to the next round.
Furthermore, the fact that RTV is, in fact, “real,” makes the game that much more interesting. Prose said “observing [the contestant’s] response to stress and humiliation generates a gladiatorial, bread-and-circus atmosphere that simply does not exist when we see movie stars in scrubs sail a gurney down the halls of ER.”
Of those I interviewed, RTV was taken as both appealing and appalling. They were drawn to RTV because of its ability to make a prince from a pauper (as in American Idol, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, etc.) which appeal to the American dream. Furthermore, many enjoy RTV because of its riveting competiveness. Viewers of RTV are stilled appalled at the levels of corruption displayed by contestants—who sometimes act on the basest human instincts of “natural selection.” However, RTV shows still increase in numbers every year.
Before writing this essay, I facebooked and tweeted a few coworkers and friends to learn of their favorite Reality TV shows. What are your favorite Reality TV shows?
Thanks to @shuey03, @robynstorms, @sudophp, @lmgilson, @Tiana_Lei, and @thymas11.
Note (1/21/10): I created some new ads and wrote a post about a new REI campaign, “Rethink Living.”
Disclaimer: I still don’t quite understand semiotics with its use of signs and how I can connect that to a retail catalog/website. I do understand that meaning is gathered by context and relationships rather than pure denotation.
REI’s predominantly retail website caters to the outdoor, rugged, and still modern adventurer. Below are a few details that define REI’s prime customer and show relationships between REI’s persona and current cultural beliefs.
Design
REI.com has made a careful use of colors and basic design principles. The website displays a minimalist design made apparent by the use of the following:
- White is dominant in the color palette.
- Diagonal lines are excluded from the design.
- Fonts are simple and consistent.
- The website consists of 2 or 3 column layouts.
REI.com also exhibits a modern approach with bright, clear cut images and extensive navigation menu. Additionally, REI brands itself with black and green (homepage).
Copy
REI’s copy seeks to highlight independence in day to day living through extreme to moderate “adventures”:
- “Whether it’s the end of a top-rope or an alpine summit, REI has the gear to help you reach it.”
- “Get outdoors with tents, packs….”
- “The snow’s ready, are you?”
- “Explore your world on a bike from REI!”
- “Get outside with adventure-ready women’s hiking and travel clothing….”
Analysis
Culturally, Americans are increasingly spending time indoors. They are inundated with media advertising on every possible piece of communication technology available. Perhaps REI speaks to the “fed up” individual who is bored or exhausted by “The Office” environment. The opportunity for independence is a promising motivation for customers.
REI.com isn’t just a place for the outdoor consumer to get his/her gear, but rather a place that helps to define the customer—to validate the customer’s beliefs and further persuade him/her to become something more. Its retail website ratifies the customer’s need to feel sophisticated (by being minimalistic and modern) but also the independence seeker.
Many marketers have reverted from studying traditional market research to studying a perceived mathematical formula in order to attract customers. Understanding PageRank[1], the algorithm Google patented in 2001[2], is the golden ticket in internet marketing. In this article, we’ll discuss how the algorithm works and how it has changed marketing.
Google and Marketing?
Google holds 80 percent of the US search market share and 90 percent globally.[3] Millions of searches are made per day at Google.com, the most visited website on the internet. Google founders and Stanford dropouts, Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, probably didn’t realize that their algorithm change the face of marketing. Marketers who can get their company’s websites listed on the first page of Google can often double, triple, or quadruple sales.
How Does it Work?
Although more than 200 factors contribute to Google’s algorithm, it was originally designed with two distinguishing components: (1) page ranking and (2) anchor text.[4]
Page Ranking
Google ranks a web page based on how many inbound links (also called backlinks) from other websites are linking to that page. Each link may be considered one vote, according to Google. Google then innovated further by placing a specific weight on each vote. Sites with more links receive higher rank. In turn, links from these higher ranking sites receive more weight.
To illustrate page ranking, analyze the number of links from two large websites, CNN.com and Walmart.com. Walmart.com has 3,380 backlinks and CNN.com has 46,600 backlinks. A link from CNN.com would be worth more than a link from Walmart.com.
Anchor Text
Anchor text are the words actually being linked. If a link were placed in this article to Bing.com (Microsoft’s search engine), it might look like the following: Visit another search engine. In this case, http://www.bing.com is the link while “search engine” is the anchor text. Google assigns relevancy of the websites in its search results based on the anchor text of those websites’ backlinks. Should the above example be an actual link, a search for “search engine” should be more likely to return Bing.com in the results.
What Does this Mean to Marketers?
Marketers who understand page ranking and anchor text can build traffic to their companies’ websites by employing numerous methods of link building and using keyword-targeted anchor text.
Continual Research
However, the buck doesn’t stop with proper link building and anchor text. Because spam is always trying to get into Google’s search results,[5] Google engineers must constantly update the algorithm.[6] Thus, internet marketing always requires continuous research and testing.
[1] Wikipedia, “PageRank,”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank
[2] Lawrence Page, “Method for node ranking in a linked database,” Google Patent,
http://www.google.com/patents?id=cJUIAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA3#v=onepage&q=&f=false
[3] Reuters, “CORRECTING and REPLACING: Bing US Market Share Stabilises but Yahoo! Continues Fall – StatCounter,”
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS151362+02-Nov-2009+BW20091102
[4] Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine,” Stanford University,
http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html
[5] Zolt Gyöngyi and Hector Garcia-Molina, “Spam: It’s Not Just for Inboxes Anymore,” Computer, vol. 38, no. 10, pp. 28-34, Oct. 2005, doi:10.1109/MC.2005.352
[6] Matt Cutts, “Explaining algorithm updates and data refreshes,”
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/explaining-algorithm-updates-and-data-refreshes/
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